The race for 4th..

jobeenfitz

I would do everything possible to hold on to Bale. He is our best player by a mile. Do you think you could replace him with 40 million? I don't. Would we even re-invest most of it?

Adebyor may have goals in him. Will he score 15+ goals next season? I think he is the ultimate mercinery. Yes he scored a couple of important goals lately, had he done this all season we would not be scrapping for CL now.

Yes I am Diametrically opposed to your views.

Ilik Urgee

If AVB could figure out what his motivations actually are(outside of money because yes on some level he is an out and out mercenary), there are goals in him.
I was just speaking as if the scum actually won on Saturday.


Does Pardew have any history with Wenger? Or does the fact he needs the win to hang on to his job enough motivation?:D

Just to clarify,I think yes, we could manage easily without Bale,we've seen a lot of the best of him.
Would we reinvest any of the 40 million? Think of any percentage below 50.

jobeenfitz

Its hard to know what Newcastle will do Sunday. We just have to wait and hope they give them a game. AVB is a very good manager imo and he talked Ade up when he was playing poorly. I Guess he will have to try and get the best out of him next season cos he would be hard to shift on his big wage.

Watching Bale play in a Tottenham jersey these past few seasons(this one especially) has been a joy. I would love to see him playing for us again next season, hopefully with a few top class additions.

When will we have a player this good again?

Knowing Tottenham have a big pile of cash in his place does not do it for me.

bradolf pittler

i dunno where yer all getting this 40m for bale stuff.
he's the hottest property in world football and shouldnt be sold for any less than 70m.
if madrid can pay 30+m for modric to leave him on the bench for most of the season then they can pay double that for the player of the year.
i dont think he will go next season anyway,

Kiith

Thanks a bunch Wigan

That's it for us i'm afraid. Newcastle won't get a result against Arsenal on Saturday, so it doesn't matter what happens in our game. Really only have ourselves to blame, as we had a terrible run right while Arsenal were kicking off. Not being in the CL will really limit our purchasing power in the summer as well, and while everyone else will improve their squad, we might struggle to bring in big name players. Plus, Levy.

mickman

Losing at home to a bad Fulham side was an absolute kicker

Here Precious2

mickman wrote: »

Losing at home to a bad Fulham side was an absolute kicker

and also at home to Wigan mick !!!

The show is over newcastle will do nothing for us. Hope I'm wrong though. What we wouldn't give to have won 1 of those 2 homes games against wigan and fulham:mad:

Sugarlumps

Still in with a shout, nobody can't foretell the outcome on Sunday, if we miss out then so be it. Looking forward to it, I'd like to see us hockey Sunderland.

White Heart Loon

I can see the horror already, Arsenal lose, we only draw leaving us both with the same points and they go through on goal difference

Left Back on the Bench

we just weren't good enough.arsenal have started grinding out results and we've crumbled.one of arsenals worst seasons and one of our better ones and we still finish below them.

mickman

Left Back on the Bench wrote: »

we just weren't good enough.arsenal have started grinding out results and we've crumbled.one of arsenals worst seasons and one of our better ones and we still finish below them.

and arsenal were like men possesed last night. they will come out fighting out sunday and hope to have the game wrapped up by half time

Sugarlumps

Men possessed? Don't know about that? Wigan gifted them several goals. They were shocking for large parts of the game, until they bagged the second.

Left Back on the Bench

and they probably will. Newcastle will put up no fight,most of then are French after all;-)

2nd Row Donkey

Bitterly disappointed with how things went last night but we shouldn't have been relying on other teams to do us favours at this stage.

Looks like we are going to finish the season with more points than last season yet we will still be 1 position lower in the EPL.

Yet again, we bottled it and threw away a huge lead over our nearest rivals. I cringe when I hear the 'mind the gap' phase and the way we (the fans) where even fooled into thinking we had top 4 wrapped up after we beat Arsenal all those weeks ago. Will we ever learn.

Credit where it is due, arsenal went on a great run after that defeat and although they struggled in recent weeks they got the points on the board and thats all that matters. However, I think even the most biased arsenal fans will have to acknowledge that there is not much between the two teams this year and over a 38 game marathon the difference is only going to be one result or maybe even just goal difference.

Once we lost those games at Anfield, Fulham and then either side of poor performance in Milan and home to Basle we never looked the same.

Saab Ed

If we take Europa league football seriously next year then I'll want AVB gone. If we dont then I'm happy. I was one of his harshed critcs at he beginning of the season and I've had to eat very large amounts of humble pie (and rightly so) but his one major blot was not to ease of on a tired team playing in so many competitions.

Europa league is junk, its not where we want to be and its a road to nowhere. Top 4, CL football every year is where we need to be. Those games V Inter and then along with Fulham and Liverpool have cost us CL football. lets hope its not forgotten.

2nd Row Donkey

^^^

I agree, unless we have serious investment in the squad we cant compete for both the EL and a top 4 place. (Not yet anyway)

Yes, it would have been nice to win it. But that's all, just 'nice'.

Had of finished top4 and won it you could say the ends justifies the means but we've come up short on both counts sadly. Chelsea look likely to succeed where we have failed on both counts but that's because of the strength in depth of their squad.

Left Back on the Bench

we will never have a strength in depth squad like chelski because levy is more interested in making money than building a team.imo we should have kept guys like pienaar and kranjcar.good players to have in your squad and gives you the chance to rotate.it was obvious the squad was knackered

DubPerryman

Saab Ed wrote: »

If we take Europa league football seriously next year then I'll want AVB gone. If we dont then I'm happy. I was one of his harshed critcs at he beginning of the season and I've had to eat very large amounts of humble pie (and rightly so) but his one major blot was not to ease of on a tired team playing in so many competitions.

I don't agree with getting rid of AVB, but the Europa Cup would be a great development step for our U-21 and NextGen squads next season.

Could coming 5th be a developmental masterstroke from AVB??

Left Back on the Bench

DubPerryman wrote: »

I don't agree with getting rid of AVB, but the Europa Cup would be a great development step for our U-21 and NextGen squads next season.

Could coming 5th be a developmental masterstroke from AVB??

it would be good experience for them but the problem this yr i found was he was playing his strongest team and they were knackered.another thing about this is,i can see levy telling avb to play the youngsters in Europe and keep the squad fresher,hence he won't have to spend cash

Hannibal

DubPerryman wrote: »

I don't agree with getting rid of AVB, but the Europa Cup would be a great development step for our U-21 and NextGen squads next season.

Could coming 5th be a developmental masterstroke from AVB??

we had a similar predicament with Liverpool. But the thing about the Europa that people overlook is the co-eff points it can generate, the co-eff is important for seeding purposes as shown with the tough groups Man City got two years in a row in the CL. There's also prize money and full stadiums that you have to take into account.
Some people say throw the kids in etc for the Europa, but if you qualify for the CL then your big players are going to have to play in both the CL and the league and if players aren't used to that pressure and constant big games it will affect them.

Hannibal

Dotsey wrote: »

we had a similar predicament with Liverpool. But the thing about the Europa that people overlook is the co-eff points it can generate, the co-eff is important for seeding purposes as shown with the tough groups Man City got two years in a row in the CL. There's also prize money and full stadiums that you have to take into account.
Some people say throw the kids in etc for the Europa, but if you qualify for the CL then your big players are going to have to play in both the CL and the league and if players aren't used to that pressure and constant big games it will affect them.

Just to elaborate further UEFA's top 10 is: 1. Barcelona, 2. Bayern, 3. Real Madrid, 4. Chelsea, 5. Man Utd, 6. Arsenal, 7. Inter, 8. Porto, 9. Benfica, 10. Valencia. Further down is: 17. Liverpool, 18. CSKA Moscow, 19. Paris SG, 20. Juventus, 21. Zenit, 22. Man City, 23. Sporting Lisbon, 24. Tottenham and at number 31 is Borussia Dortmund.
UEFA calculates this on 5 year score, like Liverpool didn't qualify for Europe in 11/12 yet admittedly so Dortmund are at the moment way ahead of us and indeed a lot of the clubs in the top 10. Inter are ranked 7, I seen them play Spurs this season and to be honest in living memory they were the worst Italian team I've ever seen in Europe

Left Back on the Bench

Dotsey wrote: »

Just to elaborate further UEFA's top 10 is: 1. Barcelona, 2. Bayern, 3. Real Madrid, 4. Chelsea, 5. Man Utd, 6. Arsenal, 7. Inter, 8. Porto, 9. Benfica, 10. Valencia. Further down is: 17. Liverpooel, 18. CSKA Moscow, 19. Paris SG, 20. Juventus, 21. Zenit, 22. Man City, 23. Sporting Lisbon, 24. Tottenham and at number 31 is Borussia Dortmund.
UEFA calculates this on 5 year score, like Liverpool didn't qualify for Europe in 11/12 yet admittedly so Dortmund are at the moment way ahead of us and indeed a lot of the clubs in the top 10. Inter are ranked 7, I seen them play Spurs this season and to be honest in living memory they were the worst Italian team I've ever seen in Europe

d Europa league is ok but i would view it more as putting a mixture of youth and players who would be fighting for a place e.g naughton,caulker,brad,holtby,Carroll, obika,falque.if they wanna impress they'll wanna do as well as possible and try get as far in the competition as they can.the problem i found was it was full team out Thursday,same team out Sunday.levy will spend nothin while we're in the Europa league

Cianan2

Here is hoping that Sunday magically goes our way, but at least I got to go to that City game!

Leinstersqspur

I'll tell you why the Europa League is a load of bollix, neither team in the final qualified to be in it. UEFA ballsed up the format.

Saab Ed

Leinstersqspur wrote: »

I'll tell you why the Europa League is a load of bollix, neither team in the final qualified to be in it. UEFA ballsed up the format.

Its worse than that. Chelsea actually did finish last season in a Europa league spot (5th) but got promoted to the CL at our expense as winners. They then flunk that and end up exactly where they qualified for. What's the fcukin point with everything stacked against you like that!

mickman

Saab Ed wrote: »

If we take Europa league football seriously next year then I'll want AVB gone. If we dont then I'm happy. I was one of his harshed critcs at he beginning of the season and I've had to eat very large amounts of humble pie (and rightly so) but his one major blot was not to ease of on a tired team playing in so many competitions.

Europa league is junk, its not where we want to be and its a road to nowhere. Top 4, CL football every year is where we need to be. Those games V Inter and then along with Fulham and Liverpool have cost us CL football. lets hope its not forgotten.

Europa league don't like junk to the Chelsea lads

irishmover

Saab Ed wrote: »

Its worse than that. Chelsea actually did finish last season in a Europa league spot (5th) but got promoted to the CL at our expense as winners. They then flunk that and end up exactly where they qualified for. What's the fcukin point with everything stacked against you like that!

They finished 6th behind Newcastle!

Saab Ed

irishmover wrote: »

They finished 6th behind Newcastle!

Is fcukin right! Jayzuz that's even worse.

2nd Row Donkey

Saab Ed wrote: »

Is fcukin right! Jayzuz that's even worse.

I only found out yesterday that its was 6th and not 5th they ffinished too. Must have been too caught up in the race for 4th to notice last May. What a joke.

ahnowbrowncow

Chelsea would have been in the europa league even if they finished 20th, they won the fa cup last year, they beat spurs 5-1 in the semi finals if I remember correctly.

And best of luck in the europa league next year